Tour description
We’ll start the tour in Mysore, famous for a palace that’s illuminated for an hour on Sundays, for the Chamundi Hill and the Devaraj food market.
On day 3 we head southwards into the Mudumalai National Park, which lies at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Here you can take a jeep or elephant safari and go in search of elephants, tigers, hyenas, parrots, leopards, eagles, wild boar and flying squirrels, to name but a few!
Trip by toy train
Day 4 sees us travelling to Coonoor, stopping on the way to visit Ooty and enjoy spetacular views of the Blue Mountains, whose hills are enveloped in a mysterious blue haze. Coonoor is famous for its tea and you will no doubt be tempted to visit one of its charming little tea gardens. Coonoor is also famous for its toy train. This colourful steam engine winds its way around mountains and over bridges along a track that is distinctly reminiscent of a child’s train set.Backwaters
Cochin is the next stop. One of South India’s busiest and most crowded southern cities, the ‘Queen of the Arabian Sea’ is an old town with a natural harbour and a Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial history. It’s renowned for Chinese fishing nets described by Marco Polo in his travel journals. You’ll also be able to enjoy a Kathakali show, a traditional Kerala dance drama describing an epic Hindu story. And you’ll be able to use the public ferry or the auto-rickshaw to make your way around town and amongst the islands.
From Cochin we will head to Aleppey for a memorable cruise around its famous backwaters . This pretty area is full of channels, lakes and creeks. You can sunbathe on deck or watch the landscape go by from the shelter of the boat. It doesn’t take long to realise the extent to which the locals’ lives depend on the river. You will see them bathing, washing their dishes, playing and fishing in the water.Periyar National Park
On day 8 we will hit Periyar National Park, a wildlife sanctuary where you can walk, take a boat-trip on the man-made lake, and stalk some of the local elephants, bison, deer, wild boar and tigers. Aspiring cooks may even like to enjoy a guided tour of a spice plantation!Blessed by elephants!
Madurai is the next stop. It is Tamil Nadu’s oldest city and its ancient Meenakshi temple, an odd mix of the exotic and the erotic, attracts many thousands of pilgrims. As a visitor you should prepare yourself for being blessed by the elephants (fortunately the ritual doesn’t involve being sat on!) Meanwhile astrologers will want to read your palm (no doubt you can all compare results later!).World heritage temples
We’ll then move to Tanjore through Tamil countryside, enjoying the rice fields, local markets, rural villages, a silk-weaving workshop and world heritage temples en route, and eating traditional meals served on banana leaves. At Tanjore we’ll visit another famous world heritage temple to see its bronze work and glass paintings, then the craftsmen’s workshops.French joie de vivre
Next we visit the famously picturesque Pondicherry, a former French colonial enclave which still retains a little of the French joie de vivre and to this day is distinctly Gaulic in its architecture, street names and haute cuisine!Relax in Mamallapuram
The tour ends with a chance to relax in Mamallapuram, a small 7th century coastal town with World Heritage status and where you can go to sea with fishermen. Alternatively you can take an ecologically-friendly bicycle ride through local villages, stopping at schools and farms or seeing at first hand cottage industries such as cotton-weaving or pottery-making.